To pick new mayor, Verona council divided along gender lines

When the Verona Township Council meets on July 1 to select a new mayor, it looks like it’s the boys lining up against the girls.

By all appearances, the non-partisan council is preparing to skip over Christine McGrath and seat Christopher Tamburro as the next mayor.

It looks like Alex Roman and Jack McEvoy are with Tamburro, while Cynthia Holland would back McGrath in a contest that appears to fall along gender lines.

“Nobody has contacted me about selecting a mayor, which tells me they don’t need my vote,” Holland told the New Jersey Globe.  She said she would support McGrath.

Roman, the mayor since 2021 in a township that typically (but not always) rotates the post every two years, declined to discuss picking a new mayor.

“I don’t want to comment on it in advance of a vote,” he told the New Jersey Globe.  “We don’t traditionally do that, and I don’t feel comfortable commenting on that.”

McGrath was re-elected to a second term in May and was the top vote-getter in 2019 – when an incumbent was ousted – and 2023.  She has served as deputy mayor for the last two years.

“As of now, it is not known to me if any decisions have been made on the mayor position,” McGrath said. “Throughout the campaign – and after my historic win as the top vote-getter in the election for the second time – residents have repeatedly praised my leadership in the community and expressed excitement at seeing me rotate into the Mayor’s position.”

A group of residents attended a council meeting last week to ask about the status of the selection of the next mayor.  Some spoke about a past precedent that favored top vote-getters and seniority as part of the decision-making process.

But Roman disputes the premise that there is a pattern.

“I can’t find a particular example of if X happens, then y happens,” he said.  “You can’t find a hard and fast rule.”

One prominent elected official is taking sides in the mayoral selection process.

Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair), who represented Verona for four years before congressional redistricting, thinks McGrath should be the next mayor and praised her first four years in office.

“Christine has spent over a decade working to bring her community together to combat gun violence, address food insecurity, and make Verona a place where residents are proud to raise their families,” Sherrill said.  “She has delivered on increasing the level of transparency and accountability in the municipal government, and I appreciate her tireless dedication to our community.”

Just 17% of New Jersey municipalities have women mayors, according to the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) at Rutgers University.

“The proportion of women mayors in New Jersey remains appallingly low partly because many municipalities select mayors from within,” said Jean Sinzdak, the CAWP associate director.  “It’s clear the council is dividing along gender lines, and the fact that leading vote-getter is not the top choice indicates that gender bias still exists.”

New Jersey’s five largest cities – Newark, Jersey City, Paterson, Elizabeth, and Trenton – have never elected a woman mayor; the only time women served as mayors were in between a male mayor going to jail and a new male mayor being elected to replace him.

Verona has had two women mayors since 1908: Maria Force, who served from 1999 to 2001, and Teena Schwartz, the mayor from 2009 to 2011 – just 7% of the 29 mayors over the last 115 years.

Other women have been passed over for Verona mayor, including Catherine Tamasik, who was elected twice in the 1980s and 1990s.

Verona has struggled with gender issues before.

In 2020, two women holding top posts – the township clerk and the municipal court clerk – received substantial settlements for being paid significantly less than male department heads.  This was the first lawsuit settled under the Diane B. Allen Equal Pay Act signed by Gov. Phil Murphy in 2018.

Tamburro, finishing his second year as a councilman, has yet to respond to a call seeking comment.  Tamburro fnished second in a race for three council seats in 2021.